The Rev. Ben J. Beltzer had a brush with unemployment in the mid-1970s that led him to establish comprehensive ministries to serve the poor and homeless: first the Hillcrest Ministries in Liberty, Mo., and in 1985, the Interfaith Housing Coalition in Dallas.

Mr. Beltzer, 74, died of pancreatic cancer last Thursday at his Flower Mound home.

A celebration of life and reception will be Nov. 16 at 2 p.m. at Canyon Creek Presbyterian Church in Richardson.

“He wanted to be the voice of those who were voiceless; that is what drove him,” said his wife, Pat Beltzer of Flower Mound.

Mr. Beltzer was born in Kirksville, Mo., where he graduated from high school in 1955. He served four years in the Navy and married Patsy Ruth Caldwell in 1959.

He was licensed and ordained at First Baptist Church in Port Isabel, and was pastor to other churches in Texas, New Mexico and Missouri.

Mr. Beltzer earned a bachelor’s degree in business from William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., while he was pastor of a Baptist church in Turney, Mo. He became active in the civil rights movement and joined the Presbyterian Church, which he decided was more progressive on the issue.

A Presbyterian pastor in Liberty introduced him to the Fellowship of the Concerned, where he became president of the Liberty Action Council, which worked to obtain justice for individuals, especially in housing.

“From that point on, he aligned himself with that cause,” Mrs. Beltzer said.

In addition to his work for the fellowship, Mr. Beltzer was manager at a tire dealership in Independence, Mo. He lost his job when the business was purchased and the new owners brought in their own people, according to his wife.

Unemployed and broke, Mr. Beltzer saw the poor and homeless in a new light.

“When I sat in the welfare office, I realized there wasn’t much difference between us,” he said in 2003. “I may have had more education, but psychologically, we were together.”

He found work as a gasoline station attendant and was able to make a down payment on his own station with the help of a benefactor. His gas station became part of the Presbyterian Church’s outreach ministry. Word soon spread to other Liberty churches.

“The station kind of became known as the church on the corner,” Mrs. Beltzer said.

Mrs. Beltzer, a church elder, attended a seminar in Washington, D.C., on alternative ways to help the homeless. Her husband later attended the seminar. They learned about a program that purchased and renovated apartment buildings to house the homeless, who received help with child care and a variety of counseling and job assistance.

The Beltzers approached a group at their church about starting a similar program. In 1977, they founded Hillcrest Ministries, a transitional housing program in Liberty.

Benefactors helped the organization buy an apartment building — which the group renovated — and begin helping the poor.

In 1985, Hillcrest Ministries received a JC Penney Golden Rule Award for its work in Missouri.

In the early 1980s, Mr. and Mrs. Beltzer’s daughter Debbie Miller, a Texas Christian University graduate, was working in Dallas and attending NorthPark Presbyterian Church. She told church leaders about her parents’ success in working with the homeless in Missouri.

The Beltzers spoke at a homeless conference in Dallas, after which they were invited to help build a similar program here. They initially declined the offer, but accepted it in 1985. They moved to Dallas, where Mr. Beltzer was the founding director of the Interfaith Housing Coalition. The transitional housing program was one of the organizations that received support from The Dallas Morning News Charities from 1992 through 2011.

Mr. Beltzer retired from Interfaith Housing in 2003.

He was a member of First Presbyterian Church in Dallas.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Beltzer is survived by two other daughters, Jennifer Smith and Susan Hicks, both of Flower Mound; a son, Greg Beltzer of Highland Village; two sisters, Judy Bradley and June Bruner, both of Jefferson City, Mo.; and eight grandchildren.

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